Good Intentions
by Astrophysikerin
Summary: What if Jolinar hadn't died?
1. Trust

A/N: An alternate reality for Tok'ra fans. Thanks to Meushall for the great ideas I'm trying to build on. Note: ever notice how Jolinar walks right up to the Ashrak and doesn't do anything, even though she has to be able to sense that he's blended?

* * *

Jolinar paced back and forth in her cell, several things weighing in on her mind. She hoped she had done the right ting in killing the Nassyan man at the hospital. She was sure she had felt a presence in him and fairly certain he wasn't a Tok'ra; they knew the dangers in coming near her were far too great. So she had killed him in one quick stroke to the back of the neck.

Jolinar sighed, again wishing she could have told the difference between a willing host and a compassionate giver of first aid. _**I will not harm you** _, she thought to her current host again. **_Please believe me._**

_No, you're a Goa'uld! Get out! Go away!_

**_I did not know! I am sorry!_**

The host didn't reply but thought back to the Goa'uld-removing procedure a Major Kawalsky had once undergone. It had been unsuccessful, and this drove Captain Carter further into dispair.

**_I will leave as soon as I find another host,_ ** Jolinar promised.

_You won't. I know that. You're a Goa'uld. _

Her insistence stabbled deeply into Jolinar's heart, and she again wished she had not had to separate from Rosha. **_Talk to them when they come. Just know whtat if we are allowed to leave, I will take us back to the Tok'ra base, where I can find a new host._**

Just as she thought that, Colonel O'Neill entered, and Jolinar gave her host control.

"You know, you really screwed up this time," he began.

"Colonel!" Sam replied. "It's me. Please, get it out!"

His eyes widened. "Carter!" Then he closed them and shook his head, remembering Teal'c's advice. "Why are you doing this?" he whispered.

"Colonel," she repeated, shomehow managing to keep her calm. "He says that if we let him go, he'll go back to his base and find a new host."

"I'm not buying it," O'Neill replied, referring to the Goa'uld's obvious act of playing Sam.

"Me neither, sir," Carter responded. "But maybe if we all go together"

Her eyes flashed, a sure sign of Goa'uld take over. "What'd you do that for!" Jack shouted.

"Three unblended humans would not be allowed to leave. It would be a huge breech of security," Jolinar answered.

"A Goa'uld worried about security? Isn't that what you think Jaffa are for?"

Jolinar paused, not wanting to say too much. Then she figured she might as well explain a little. Trust had to be built; it was rarely given freely. "We have no Jaffa," she admitted.

"Not much of a Goa'uld, are you then?""

"No," she agreed.

O'Neill stood back. What happened to this guy's pride? No Jaffa? Not much of a Goa'uld? Seemed to have let Carter talk? "Who are you?"

The Tok'ra frowned and broke eye contact. This simply wasn't something she wanted to share. She retreated, leaving Sam in control. "Jack, I don't think he's a Goa'uld... At least, not the kind we know. A normal Goa'uld would never let its host talk..."

**_That's right! That's right! _** Jolinar praised. **_A Goa'uld wouldn't, but Tok'ra do all the time!_**

"Tok'ra," Sam blurted, latching onto the word. "Ask Teal'c about Tok'ra."

Jolinar flinched._ **There goes security.**_

* * *

Reviews and suggestions always more than welcome... Okay, encouraged... Begged for... What do you think of this take on Jolinar? 


	2. Understanding

A/N: Not my best, but I thought someone might find it amusing. This should get better later on if I write more. Plans for village kids. Hmm… If not with an open-base policy as shown in "The Tok'ra," how do you gain Tau'ri trust….?

* * *

Jolinar stumbled out of the gate after O'Neill and Jackson, more than aware of how unceremoniously her hands were bound. They had not yet arrived on the planet with the Tok'ra base, but this SG-1 was unaware of that fact. Except for Samantha, of course. 

"Colonel," she called, sounding more than a little tired. "This isn't the right planet."

One of Daniel's eyebrows flicked skywards. "Why would he give us the wrong address, Sam?"

She shrugged as much as she could with her hands bound behind her. "I think he didn't want us to keep the address in our dialing computer."

"But we'll still be able to remember it," the archeologist argued.

Jack caught on, nodding knowingly. "But Hammond won't be able to send anyone after us," he explained, "unless we leave a note."

Carter's eyes flared, and Jolinar took one step away from Teal'c, who stood behind her. "You must not. If the Goa'uld arrive here, they will find it and follow."

Jack blinked. "You are a Goa'uld. What do you care?"

Her eyes flashed again. "I am not a Goa'uld. As Captain Carter explained earlier, I am Tok'ra."

The colonel took a few menacing steps closer, reminding himself all the while that he was talking to the snake, not Carter. "Why don't you want to be followed?"

"Why do we have an iris, Jack?" Daniel inquried from behind him. "To keep out unwanted guests."

"If these Tok'ra oppose the Goa'uld as the legends say they do," Teal'c began, "security and defenses are indeed necessary."

"Thank you," Jolinar acknowledged. **_All this to return home,_ ** she thought, **_and perhaps stay there if that Nassyan man really was the Ashrak._**

_I'm sure that really was him,_ Carter consoled. _I mean, there was something weird about him. He was burned so badly, he probably should've been dead._

Just as Jack was deciding to let the "Goa'uld" have it his way, the gate began dialing. As quickly as possible, the four hid behind some convenient bushes off to the side of the faint trail to the gate. The kerplundge shot forward and settled back into a two-story circle of watery event-horizon. A single figure walked through, and the Stargate shut off behind him. Even while two of the other three team members had their weapons trained on the lone figure and Teal'c had his trained on Jolinar, she was suddenly overcome with and obedient to an urge to run up and hug the figure, though the closest she could come was to be hugged by him. This surprised SG-1 to the point where they could do about nothing.

"Rosha?" the figure questioned, having hardly gotten a look at who had "attacked" him.

Tears began to streak down Carter's face. "She's gone, Martouf. The ashrak almost killed us, and she's gone."

He began to cry as well, but when he noticed SG-1's approach, his eyes flashed. He pulled Jolinar ever so slightly closer, and raised his zat to point at the approaching humans.

"Easy," O'Neill commanded. "It's three to one; put your weapon down."

"Do it, Lantash," Jolinar whispered. "They only want this host back." He looked at her now, studying the new face by his side and hesitating. "Do it, Lantash. They're Tau'ri."

His eyes widened in surprise, and he slowly, reluctantly set his zatn'katel on the grassy ground.

O'Neill swooped in and collected the weapon, returning to his original vantage point before asking, "Who are you?"

The newcomer didn't answer as he carefully unbound Carter's hands, but Jolinar did. "He is another Tok'ra: Lantash."

"Uh-huh." Jack glanced to his other teammates. "This feel like an ambush to anyone else?"

"Jack," Daniel scolded. "Not everything is an ambush; coincidences do happen. Besides, aren't we the ones ambushing?"

Jolinar allowed her host to speak. "Colonel, this planet is special to both of them."

O'Neill flinched, instinctively turning his P-90 away from his 2IC. After a frown and some thought, though, he turned it back. "Carter?"

Frowning, she took half a step away from Lantash but did not come nearer to her friends and teammates. She blushed a little. "It's kinda personal, sir."

Lantash smiled affectionately in her direction, the implied closeness digging into Jack's heart. "No, it's alright. This was Rosha's homeworld. I came to see if she and Jolinar had escaped the ashrak or come here to avoid leading him to the base."

Both Teal'c and Daniel looked surprised. "Hunter," the translated for Jack's benefit.

"As in bounty?"

Teal'c gave a single nod. "They serve the system lords by eliminating particular individuals."

Sam tried to divide her attention between her CO and Lantash, but since that was ineffective, she turned to Lantash. "We think he's dead." She turned back to the colonel, knowing the next would make more sense to him. "Jolinar killed one of the Nassyans at the hospital."

Jack's eyes widened. "What? Why?" he yelled.

"She thought he was a Goa'uld." She didn't try to explain further. He didn't need to be confused by the sensing and the details about his injuries.

"Great. Now what?" he wondered, looking around for ideas.

"Rosha's home was always a refuge for us. We can stay there the night," Lantash suggested.

Carter glanced to the other Tok'ra then to the trail leading away from the Stargate. "Sir, it's just on the edge of town. It'll be like most of our other recon missions."

" 'Cept that you're a Goa'uld," he mumbled, motioning the others to move out.

Lantash's eyes flashed, and now that the P-90s were directed elsewhere, he caught O'Neill by the arm. "Jolinar is _not_ a Goa'uld!"

Jack jumped, extremely startled by the Goa'uld-ish behavior. "Just like I suppose you're not?"

"I am not."

Daniel rolled his eyes. "Jack, from what Teal'c's told me, they're resistance fighters." He turned to face Lantash. "You fight the Goa'uld, right?"

"Yes!" he replied.

Daniel nodded, trying to make a point to Jack. "Why?"

Lantash thought for a moment. "They do not respect their hosts. We believe that a host's body should be shared equally between the symbiote and the host."

Before Daniel could reply, Jack commented. "Oh, yeah, shared equally. We still haven't heard from _your_ host."

Sam took particular interest in this, as did Daniel and Teal'c. All eyes turned to Lantash. He closed his eyes for a moment, but when he spoke, it was still clearly Lantash. "We… Martouf is not yet ready to speak. We are glad the ashrak is dead and Jolinar is here, but we loved Rosha as well."

"Rosha, Rosha, Rosha," Jack snarled, not catching on to the emotion in the Tok'ra's voice. "You still sound like a Goa'uld to me."

Lantash glared at the colonel but remained silent. He quickly passed the others, leading them quickly toward the village. Carter shrugged to her CO and followed. "Lantash," she said as she caught up. "Lantash, slow down."

He paused and waited for her, checking to see that the rest of SG-1 was fairly far behind before he allowed Martouf to speak. A single tear spilled from his eye. He started to say something, but didn't get very far.

Sam shook her head. "You don't need to say anything."

He sighed. "I do." Catching her totally off-guard, he pursued a different subject. "Jolinar says she needs a new host."

She blushed. "I… I never volunteered to be a Tok'ra. We've never even heard of you until after Jolinar… I have a life back on Earth. I can't just up and leave; they need me."

He frowned as both symbiote and host felt a chill run through them. "You didn't volunteer?"

"It was a misunderstanding. I was trying to do CPR to save her host, and… And she thought I was trying to help her," Carter explained.

Martouf felt a weight settled in his stomach, but he was unsure whether it was due to disappointment or a further sense of loss. "Perhaps another on this world will volunteer to host Jolinar."

Carter glanced back to see that her CO and friends were out of earshot. "I don't know if that'll be necessary." Martouf looked expectantly in her direction. "We're kinda reaching an understanding."

He grinned. It was the same expression he'd had the night before the mission that had taken her to Sokar's moon. _Wait, I've never been there! Why do I remember that?_

**_Blending allows us to share more than just thoughts, _**Jolinar told her. **_Feelings, memories, everything is mutual. _**

As night fell, the group came upon a small cabin on the outskirts of a pleasant town. All four members of SG-1 slept in the common room. Hours later, Carter was still awake, arguing with Jolinar. _I can't go. I'm sorry. You know Colonel O'Neill would never let me, anyway. _

_**But fighting the Goa'uld… I can't give up on my own people.**_

_Just coming back to Earth doesn't mean you'll stop fighting the Goa'uld, _Sam reminded, thinking of some of SG-1's various encounters with them. _We just go about it a little differently. Please, Jolinar! Imagine everything you can teach us and all that an alliance with the Tok'ra could do for both the Tok'ra and the SGC!_

**_Martouf… Lantash… _**

_They can visit, can't they? _

_**As you say, long distance relationships don't usually work out.**_

_That's when the people have been together for a handful of years, not a century. _

_**And the typical long distance relationship is a few hundred or a few thousand "miles;" we will be worlds apart.** _

_Connected by the Stargate, it's probably not going to be more than maybe fifty klicks until there's a Tel'tak involved. It'll— _

"Carter?" Jack O'Neill's voice cut into the room's silence like a shot.

"Sir?" she whispered back.

"Aren't you going to get some sleep?"

She shrugged, though she knew he couldn't see it in the darkness. "I don't know. Jolinar—"

"We'll get it out, Carter, don't worry.," he replied, trying to sound reassuring.

She gulped. The middle of the night was a good time to break what he would consider bad news, right? "Sir, maybe it wouldn't be so bad if she stayed."

"What?" he snapped, his voice considerably louder. Daniel rolled over in his sleep, but neither of their teammates awoke.

"We've been talking."

"We?"

"Me and Jolinar."

"You have?"

"Fine. We've been thinking back and forth. Do you think General Hammond would approve an addition to SG-1?"

"Do you think _I'll _approve?" he countered.

"Sir," Carter began, "if she tries to leave, she might die."

"That bugs you?" he replied sarcastically.

"Yes, sir." She closed her eyes, though her view of the world changed little with the motion. "We have no right to risk her life just to feel better."

O'Neill began to reply, but Carter's eye-flashing effectively shut his mouth for him. "There is still disagreement about this," Jolinar told him. "I'm still willing to go."

He frowned. "She's arguing for you to _stay_?" he exclaimed, this time trying to keep his voice down.

"Yes." Jolinar shook her head and rolled on her side so that her back was to him. "Good night, Colonel."

"Night." He lay back, puzzled, then pinched his arm. It hurt. So he wasn't dreaming or, rather, "nightmaring." Maybe he was hallucinating, though. Because there was no way Carter just told him she wanted to stay a Goa'uld.


	3. Innocence

O'Neill awoke to see the door to where Lantash had slept ajar. His team remained asleep, however, and this scared him. He had always prided himself on his ability to awaken at the slightest sign of an intruder.

He quietly crept out of the cabin, careful not to disturb his teammates. Outside, the sun was just beginning to peak over the wooded horizon, and a small, short crowd had gathered several yards down the road. At the center of the group, slightly above the children's heads, bobbed a blonde one.

"Uncle Martash," one little girl begged, "tell us another story!"

A brown-haired boy beside her shook his head. "When's Rosha coming home, Uncle Martash?"

Though he was a fair distance away despite his continuing advance, Jack still saw the look of loss on the alleged anti-Goa'uld's face. "I don't know," he admitted quietly. Jack noted with surprise that it wasn't a symbiote's voice. Perhaps it was masking its voice, he thought, as Jolinar had done at first.

"Is Jolinar okay?" the same boy asked.

A faint smile grew on the Tok'ra's face. "Yes, she is." He closed his eyes, and his smile faded.

Then his head dipped, and when he again spoke, the deep, echoing voice was back. "How about another story?" Lantash suggested.

A blonde-haired girl grinned. "How 'bout when you met Jolinar?"

"No, when you beat the ashrak," another cried out.

"How about when you take that snake outta Carter's head?" Jack suggested.

Having been oblivious to the colonel's advance, the surprised children looked up at him in fear; some even shied away to hide behind Lantash, who glared at O'Neill. "The decision is not mine," he replied. "That is between the two of them."

One of the children beside him looked into his face. "What's he talking about, Uncle Martash?"

The Tok'ra was slow to speak, so Jack answered, "His girlfriend's in my friend's head!"

"Where's Rosha?" another wondered, seemingly on the verge of tears. "Does she know this man?"

"No, she does not," Lantash replied. "I do not think Rosha has ever met him." He stood, starting a ripple of standing bodies among the small crowd. "We will return." He smiled slightly, and the disappointed children began to shuffle back to their daily routines, many sending angry glares in O'Neill's direction.

" 'Uncle Martash'?" Jack repeated skeptically.

The other grinned. "Some of them are Rosha's great-nieces and nephews. They have taken to calling me 'uncle'."

Jack's eyes narrowed. It was just wrong to him that children should be so affectionate toward a Goa'uld. "And they say kids—"

" 'Morning guys," Carter's voice greeted lightly from behind him. Then it became more serious. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," Jack replied innocently, turning to face her.

"We were merely…discussing," Lantash replied.

Jack spun to face him. "You know, I've still never heard your host speak. How do I know you're not all Goa'ulds?"

Both glared at him, Lantash knowing that he was lying. Nonetheless, he retreated, allowing his host control. "I have never known Lantash to give in so easily," Martouf stated, "but he does not appreciate being called a Goa'uld."

"Nor do I," Jolinar agreed suddenly.

Jack spun around. "Okay, so your hosts talk. That still doesn't mean you're not Goa'uld!"

Jolinar frowned skeptically. "Does Samantha's opinion mean so little to you after all? I seem to recall her telling you that she wanted me to stay."

The colonel pulled his P-90 ever so slightly closer to him, subconsciously hoping that the security it normally offered would translate into comfort and a return to normality now. "How do I know you guys don't control their thoughts?"

Martouf shook his head as he edged closer to his mate's host. "They can control our bodies, Colonel, not our minds."

"Uh-huh, and yet 'nothing of the host remains'. You guys'd have a hard time convincing me that the sky is blue."

Jolinar rolled her eyes, about to say something, but the door behind her swung open enough to reveal a rather sleepy-looking Dr. Jackson. "Jack, what kind of trouble are you getting into already?"

He frowned. "Daniel, why do you assume—"

"Because it always is," the anthropologist replied. He turned his gaze to his other teammate's back. "What's going on, Sam?"

Jolinar turned to answer him. "Your friend seems to believe that we are Goa'uld."

Daniel sighed. "Jack, we're not dead. Doesn't that prove anything to you?"

"They could just be biding their time."

Frustrated and out of any new persuasive thoughts, Jolinar retreated so that Sam could speak. Appeals to emotion should work pretty well for those too obstinate to take in the facts. "Sir, the Tok'ra are good people…aliens…symbiotes. At the very least, we should work with them and see if we can't get any closer to getting rid of the Goa'uld."

"She's right," Daniel seconded. "The Tok'ra could be incredible allies, if only because they could probably act like Goa'uld on some sort of spy missions or something."

Jack groaned. They were ganging up on him again. "Alright. Fine. But we talk to Hammond before they come back, got it?"

The others nodded, but inside, Sam and Jolinar were cheering the loudest.


	4. Truth

It took a little convincing from Sam and Daniel before Hammond would allow another alleged Tok'ra into the SGC. Even so, tensions were high in the briefing room, and there was no shortage of weaponry, both handguns and zat'ni'katels. Hammond and the male portion of SG-1 sat at the head of the table near the general's office; the Tok'ra sat at the far end. Two armed guards stood at each end of the room, and more covered the far side of all the exits.

"Sir, having a Tok'ra at the SGC would give us insight into the Goa'uld we've never had before," Carter pointed out. "It would also make it easier for us to get in and out of enemy territory."

"Or harder," Martouf added, "if the Goa'uld you encounter suspects Captain Carter of being a Tok'ra."

"I don't see why they'd care," Jack whined.

Daniel rolled his eyes. "Jack, if they fight the Goa'uld like they say they do, then the Goa'uld probably think of them like we think of terrorists."

"Exactly!" Carter leaned forward, enthusiastic about the comparison. The adage about the enemy of an enemy came to mind. "The Tok'ra are trying to upset the Goa'uld way of life."

Martouf shook his head. "We are trying to _eliminate_ it." The others stared at him in surprise, but he hesitated before continuing. "The Goa'uld respect no one, least of all, their hosts."

Carter's eyes flashed, and Jolinar's voice issued from her mouth. "Their tyranny over their hosts and their slaves disgusts everyone who sits at this table or visits this mountain, Tok'ra and Tau'ri—and Jaffa—alike. Only on missions do we ever hide that disgust."

"What kind of missions are we talking about?" Hammond inquired.

Jolinar and Martouf exchanged meaningful-looking glances, and Martouf shook his head, setting off warning s in the minds of the SGC personnel.

"Well?" O'Neill pressed.

"I was about to explain," Jolinar assured him. She took a breath to begin her explanation, but was interrupted by Martouf.

"I am not sure it is in our beset interests to explain further without first assuring ourselves that you can be trusted."

"That _we_ can be trusted?" Jack repeated. "How can we be sure _you_ can be trusted? After all, you did go and take over my friend." His gaze shifted from Martouf to Jolinar. "Do I have to remind you that you _still_ haven't found another host?"

Jolinar's eyes flashed, startling everyone but Martouf. "You do not have to remind me about anything! But let me remind you that Captain Carter has asked that I remain within her. So the only issue we really need to discuss at the moment is whether she will return to our way of life, now that the ashrak is dead."

"Captain Carter is not going anywhere," Hammond stated. "From where I stand, there are three possible outcomes. One, we find her unfit for both her current post and life as a civilian. We would then have to find a suitable place for her to live. Two, if she is unfit for one or the other, she may continue she lifestyle she is still qualified for. Otherwise, everything will progress as it has for the past year."

Jolinar bowed her head for a moment, allowing her host to surface. "With all due respect, sir, if I can't work at the SGC—which I still can—I should go with them. Then I can at least—"

"Captain," Hammond replied, "you know too much about this program and Earth's defenses to permanently leave this planet. If you were captured by the Goa'uld again, without your team, you may give up information essential to our security. I can't allow that."

"And for similar reasons," Martouf explained, "we cannot allow Jolinar to remain here."

O'Neill waited a few seconds for a little of the tension to die away before he added to it. "We're not the Goa'uld. We're nothing like them, so I don't see how it would be a risk to whatever kind of organization you're running to let her stay here."

"I know you haven't noticed, Colonel, but we are nothing like the Goa'uld, either. And it's becoming increasingly clear that we have little in common with you," Martouf bit back. "At least we trust each other," he said, inclining his head toward the general's office and thoroughly confusing the room's non-Tok'ra occupants.

Sam shook her head, turning to him. "Martouf, that has very little to do with trust." She thought over the Tok'ra's reasoning for their anti-door bias. If everyone thoroughly trusted each other, there would be no need for privacy. "Well, maybe not, but just because we have doors doesn't mean we don't trust each other. Many people visit the SGC, and we may not trust all those outsiders."

"Kinsey," Jack suggested, pretending to cough.

The Tok'ra apparently didn't hear him. "Then your security is not as good as that maintained by the Tok'ra, in which case Jolinar must leave at once."

"Enough," Hammond said, rising. "It seems apparent that the Tok'ra cannot see us as suitable allies. Although any help in the fight against the Goa'uld seems to me ample reason to trust them, given Captain Carter's opinion, it looks like we'll just have to be aware of them for the time being.

"Martouf, you may leave now if you wish."

He shook his head. "I prefer to wait for Jolinar."

"Son, she's not leaving this base until Doctor Frasier gives the go-ahead. That may be a few days from now, at the least." He motioned to one pair of airmen. "Escort this man to the VIP suite. Take two more men with you."

As Martouf left the room, SG-1 turned expectantly toward their commanding officer. "Captain Carter, please join me in my office. The rest of you are dismissed."

* * *

Hammond led the new Tok'ra into his office, where he shut the door and took a seat behind his desk. She stood stiffly in front of his desk.

"Captain, I want to hear your feelings on all this," Hammond said.

She nodded. "Sir, I think we need an alliance with the Tok'ra, but like you, I don't see how it could work out. It's going to take a lot of them to trust us; they've never had to trust anyone who wasn't a Tok'ra. And it's going to take a lot for us to trust them, because of our dealings with the Goa'uld. But if we don't, neither of us are going to be able to fight the Goa'uld as effectively as we could together."

The general nodded, thinking over what he had seen. "I have no objections to dealing with the Tok'ra. If you think you can convince them to become our allies, I'll authorize a mission."

She shook her head. "Not yet, sir, but thank you for your confidence."

"All right then. One other thing for now. If you continue to work with SG-1, are you going to be able to do so at the same degree of proficiency?"

"Better, hopefully." Then she saw what he was really trying to ask. "I'm not going anywhere, sir. As homesick as Jolinar is, she knows as well as I do that Hathor and Apophis could both recognize me. If either passed my description on to others, it would make Tok'ra espionage missions much more difficult for her. SG-1 is always going to be my best avenue for fighting the Goa'uld."

"Espionage missions," he repeated. "Why didn't Martouf want to tell us that?"

She shrugged. "He still doesn't trust us completely, so he's probably afraid that if we know too much, we'll blow some of their covers. He doesn't know we do the same kind of thing here." She paused. "What are you going to do about him, sir?"

"Treat him like a prospective ally." He smiled. "That's all, Captain. Thank you."

"You're welcome, sir."

* * *

_Sorry for the wait, but life's busy, and I hardly ever get ideas for this story. I have figured out why Tok'ra have no doors and yet wear clothes, though. Ask if you're curious._


	5. Wonder

_A/N: Sorry for the unconscionably long wait. _

* * *

Sam lay awake in one of the SGC's guest rooms, staring up at the dim concrete ceiling, her mind racing over the past two days. Martouf and Lantash were close—right next door, but why should she care? They weren't her mates. Teal'c, who she'd known longer, was just as close on the other side.

A while new race, new allies against the Goa'uld. She let the thought echo in her mind, relishing the excitement it stirred.

The whole Stargate program had been revived by a single attack, giving her the opportunity to work here. General Hammond had said they needed all the best and brightest to protect the planet, and the more they learned about the Goa'uld and their advanced technologies, the more true it seemed. The Goa'uld in their sleep outmatched all of Earth's forces, but the Tok'ra had been fighting them for—

_Hundreds of years,_ Jolinar assured her. _Sleep. We both will need the rest for tomorrow. _

_Why tomorrow? _

_Because it is a new day. Sleep._

What if, somehow, they could work with the Tok'ra, match strengths to weaknesses and present an unbreakable front to the Goa'uld? The Tok'ra could provide the technical knowledge the SGC needed to come up to speed. And Earth, backed by six billion people working as if the rest of the galaxy weren't inhabited, had a wealth of resources the Tok'ra had never known.

Her eyes tingled, and a dull gold flash illuminated a patch on the distant ceiling. Sam felt shoved aside from her body, and Jolinar rolled it onto the side. Jolinar shut her eyelids. _Sleep._

_But…_ But there were so many possibilities now, so many ways the situation could go exactly right.

Jolinar flopped Sam's body onto its back again and glared at the ceiling, eyes narrowing uselessly. _The situation was a mistake. We don't want to lose anybody or any information to you, nor you to us. Everyone wants us apart. I should just find an unclaimed host._

_But this is the best thing that's happened to either—_

Klaxons whooped in the hall, red lights flashing urgently under the door. "Unauthorized Stargate activation," declared Sergeant Harriman's night shift stand-in.

Sam tried to toss the blankets off, but her body wouldn't move.

_It's not our concern,_ Jolinar thought, though Sam couldn't discern whether she addressed herself or her host.

_It is mine. Do you want to prove I'm still here? _

Sam had control back in a moment, threw the sheets aside, and hopped up. In seconds, she'd tossed on her not-quite-clean uniform and darted out of the room.

She stopped immediately, barely avoiding an impact with Teal'c's broad shoulders. "Captain Carter," he acknowledged. Side by side, they broke into a jog that would inevitably end with the elevator call button.

Sure enough, they stopped suddenly to wait for the same elevator as half the MPs and all the rest of the curious officers. Sam swiped a hand through her short-cropped hair. "What do you think it could be?" Another attack by Apophis? Another SG team? Not much else had ever come through the gate.

"We shall find out when we arrive." Stoic, uninformative response. Big surprise there.

Soft footsteps slowed behind them, and both Sam and Teal'c turned to regard Lantash. Or was it Martouf?

_Always Lantash in an emergency._ Jolinar seemed to have no doubts.

"You can go back to sleep," Sam assured him. "We're safe here."

"Then why are you going?"

The elevator scraped open, letting the three new passengers squeeze aboard. Only one destination had been chosen: level 27. Although some, like she and Teal'c, planned to go to the control room, taking the stairs between the two levels saved the excruciating delay of another elevator stop for the MPs. Pushed shoulder to shoulder, no one struck up conversation in the cramped space.

Fortunately, guest quarters was the last stop. The door cranked open on the bottom floor with a collective sigh of relief and air of excitement. Sam and Teal'c squeezed out first and lead Lantash up to the control room.

The gate was already off, the on-duty technician scrambling at her station's keyboard. General Hammond, Colonel O'Neill, and Daniel watched over her shoulder.

"What happened?"

The Colonel waved at the inactive Stargate, fiercely clad in its closed iris. "It opened. Something hit. It shut."

"Traces of naquadah," the gate technician announced, still typing away.

Sam slid into the chair next to her, accessing the gate room sensor data from the adjacent terminal. Fortran flew from her fingertips as she pulled up the recent data and started processing it.

"Bomb?" Colonel O'Neill asked.

Sam pulled up the histogram of the laser spectroscopy and tared out the titanium of the signature from the titanium iris. The results showed just naquadah, no catalyst. "I don't think so, sir."

Sam was starting to get an awareness of Jolinar's emotional state. Right now, it was giddy astonishment. _Do you have an idea of how big it was? _

One corner of Sam's mouth twisted into a frown as she worked. _We have an ultrasonic sensor below the control room monitoring deflection of the iris. We can back out how much force hit, though it hasn't been calibrated in a while. _She pulled up the records. _If we had an array and more computing power, we could tell how distributed it was._

The single-data point computation came back: one hundred eleven pounds force.

Watching Jolinar's mind work was like watching scrolling status messages in command prompt during an installation. From Sam's mind, she got the gist of the force involved. _Did it sound fast? _

Sam replayed the recorded audio from the encounter, and both listened to the deep plunk.

Jolinar's mind went back to work. Slow. Big. An image came to her mind of a big, floating naquadah communication ball.

Sam grinned. Problem solved.

"Carter?" the Colonel asked. His tone implied it wasn't the first time.

She turned the blinked, still grinning.

"What did you find?"

"We think—" He wouldn't want to hear that, but it was too late. She wiped the smile off her face and tried again. "We think it's a Goa'uld communication globe, sir."

"A what?"

Right. SG-1 hadn't seen them before. Sam knew it only from Jolinar's memories.

Teal'c took up the explanation before she could. "Large spheres that display an image from far away."

"Like a MALP," Same suggested.

_What's that?_

_It's a probe we send through the Stargate to make sure it's safe for us to go through._

_Like a…_ The Tok'ra searched through what she could find first in Sam's thoughts. _Video conference._

She shrugged up at the rest of her team. "It's not here now. Their message didn't get through." Then her eye caught on Lantash, who stared wide-eyed, almost frightened-looking, at the Stargate.

Jolinar interpreted it as a sense of wonder—and one she shared.

"What is it?"

The rest of the team turned to Lantash, too, and he shifted his gaze to her. "You blocked something from coming through the wormhole?"

"You don't?"

He turned back to the titanium. "We may yet."


End file.
